Nicholas Hoult

Nicholas Hoult (birthname: Nicholas Caradoc Hoult) has become a highly acclaimed actor capable of a wide range of genres, from period drama to voice animation. Hoult’s first notable feature role was a supporting part in Paul and Chris Weitz’s About a Boy (2002), starring Hugh Grant, Toni Collette, and Rachel Weisz, grossing a robust $130.5 million globally. Hoult had a significant supporting role in actor Richard E. Grant’s writing and directing debut, his autobiographical Wah-Wah (2005), in which Hoult enacted Grant’s young character opposite Gabriel Byrne, Emily Watson, Miranda Richardson, and Julie Walters, but grossing only $2.8 million worldwide.

Hoult played opposite Nicolas Cage in The Weather Man (2005), directed by Gore Verbinski, and co-starring Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Michael Rispoli, and Gil Bellows, but failed to earn a profit for Paramount Pictures with a poor $19 million global gross. Co-writer-director Tom Ford cast Hoult in a pivotal role in his drama, A Single Man, based on Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, and starring Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Matthew Goode, and winner of the Queer Lion in its Venice film festival world premiere, and more than tripling its $7 million costs with a $25 million worldwide return.

Hoult joined the distinguished cast of the critically lambasted Clash of the Titans (2010), including Sam Worthington, Gemma Arterton, Mads Mikkelsen, Ralph Fiennes, and Liam Neeson, nearly quadrupling its $125 million budget with a $493.2 million global gross. Nicholas Hoult nabbed the recurring MCU role of Hank McCoy/Beast, first in X-Men: First Class (2011) (co-written and directed by Matthew Vaughn), followed by X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) (directed by Bryan Singer), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) (directed by Singer, a cameo in Deadpool 2 (2018) (directed by David Leitch), and then in the ninth installment of the X-Men franchise, Dark Phoenix (2019), written and directed by Simon Kinberg, all totaling a global gross of $2.68 billion.

Hoult’s first significant feature starring role was in writer-director Jonathan Levine’s successful zombie rom-com, Warm Bodies (2013), with Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, and John Malkovich, earning a healthy $117 million worldwide. Nicholas Hoult’s next starring role was in his X-Men director Bryan Singer’s expensive ($200 million) failure, Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), with Ewan McGregor, Eleanor Tomlinson, Stanley Tucci, Ian McShane, and Bill Nighy.

The next starring role for Hoult was in writer-director Jake Paltrow’s sci-fi movie, Young Ones (2014), with Elle Fanning, Michael Shannon, and Kodi Smit-McPhee, and premiering at the Sundance film festival. Hoult co-starred with Charlize Theron, Christina Hendricks, Chloë Grace Moretz, Corey Stoll, and Tye Sheridan in writer-director Gilles Paquet-Brenner’s adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel, Dark Places (2015), earning only $5 million globally.

Perhaps Hoult’s most vivid role in his best movie arrived in 2015 with George Miller’s astonishing and universally acclaimed Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), with Tom Hardy, Theron, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rose Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, and Zoë Kravitz, winning six Oscars, and grossing a hefty $415 million worldwide. Hoult co-starred opposite Kristen Stewart in the sci-fi drama, Equals (2015), directed by story writer Drake Doremus and featuring Guy Pearce and Jacki Weaver, and premiering at the Venice film festival.

Nicholas Hoult starred in the British comic crime drama, Kill Your Friends (2015), premiering at the Toronto film festival and featuring James Corden, Georgia King, Jim Piddock, and Rosanna Arquette. Hoult’s first vocal animation role was in the U.S. dubbed version of Underdogs (originally titled Metegol) (2013), co-written and directed by Juan Jose Campanella, grossing $34 million worldwide. Hoult starred in the failed German-U.S. thriller, Collide (2016), with Felicity Jones, Marwan Kenzari, Ben Kingsley, and Anthony Hopkins, making only $6.8 million globally.

Hoult enacted author J.D. Salinger in one of his first historical figures in Rebel in the Rye (2017), written and directed by Danny Strong and co-starring Kevin Spacey, Zoey Deutch, Sarah Paulson, Brian D’Arcy James, Victor Garber, Hope Davis, and Lucy Boynton, and premiering at the Sundance film festival. Hoult reunited with filmmaker Drake Doremus to star in the Sundance-premiering drama, Newness (2017), with Laia Costa, Danny Huston, and Esther Perel, and released in limited pattern by Lost City.

Hoult played Nikola Tesla in the strong cast of Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison, Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse, Katherine Waterston, Tom Holland, and Matthew Macfadyen as J.P. Morgan in the historical drama, The Current War (2017), failing to succeed at the box office after being delayed in release for a year after poor reviews at its Toronto film festival premiere. Nicholas Hoult delivered one of his finest performances in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Oscar-winning period comedy-drama, The Favourite (2018), with the sterling cast of Olivia Colman (best actress Oscar winner), Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz, and grossing a potent $96 million worldwide.

Hoult played his second famous novelist, as a young J.R.R. Tolkien, in the biopic, Tolkien (2019), with Lily Collins, Colm Meaney, and Derek Jacobi, but failed to return on its $20 million cost. With co-stars George MacKay, Essie Davis, Thomasin McKenzie, Charlie Hunnam, and Russell Crowe, Hoult was in the true-life Aussie crime drama, True History of the Kelly Gang (2019), directed and co-produced by Justin Kurzel, premiering at the Toronto film festival.

Nicholas Hoult played opposite Anthony Mackie, Nia Long, and Samuel L. Jackson in the 1950s Los Angeles-set, The Banker (2020), co-written, co-produced, and directed by George Nolfi, and released in a limited pattern for an $11 million return before streaming on Apple TV+. With Angelina Jolie, Finn Little, and Jon Bernthal, Hoult appeared under producer-writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s thriller, Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021), grossing $23 million before streaming on HBO Max.

Hoult co-starred with Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy in the dark comedy, The Menu (2022), produced by Adam McKay and Will Ferrell and directed by Mark Mylod, and more than doubling its $30 million costs with $79.6 million gross. Hoult nabbed the title role opposite Nicolas Cage’s Dracula in Renfield (2023), co-produced and directed by Chris McKay, and released by Universal Pictures, followed by a voice performance in the feature version of Garfield (2024), with Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Cecily Strong, Bowen Yang, and Ving Rhames.

In his second Dracula-themed movie, Nicholas Hoult was cast opposite Bill Skarsgård’s Count Orlok in filmmaker Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (date to be announced), the second remake of the 1922 F.W. Murnau horror masterpiece, with Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Willem Dafoe (who starred in the first Nosferatu remake in 1979, directed by Werner Herzog). Hoult reunited with director Justin Kurzel, opposite co-star Jude Law, in the crime drama, The Order (date to be announced).